ACCUPHASE DP-720 SACD

Working with the DP-720 will be not unfamiliar to those who are used to a turntable operation. Everything takes time - getting from stand-by takes few seconds and switching off runs series of control checks before the machine is unpowered. There is something almost aristocratic in the smooth way the SACD player operates.

The controls of the DP-720 are simple and intuitive. To make sure that everyone really understands Accuphase provides a very detailed idiot-proof manual with tons of illustrations. The target burgeois may not be perhaps as technically knowledgeable as we are. I found the whole DP-720 concept flawless in use with one exception - with previous Accuphase's players I liked the A-B repeat function that was priceless for reviewing. Other that that the DP-720 is only about superlatives.

Accuphase's proprietary drive is very rigid and very heavy. It floats via viscous dampers on an 8mm thick metal plate and travels on a super-quiet traverse mechanism. Accuphase even paid attention to a disc's wobbling by developing special neodymium magnet yoke to stabilize the rotations. The whole assembly is buried in a thick shielded aluminum sarcophagus.  The fact that the mechanic part of any player playes extremely important role in its performance is out of question - Accuphase had proved it with their DP-900 transport already.

The DP-720 employs highly advanced MDSD D/A conversion with 8 (!) high-performance 32-bit Hyperstream™ DAC chips (ES9018 from ESS Technology Inc.) driven in parallel. With MDSD, multiple DSD signals are delayed and then processed by the D/A converters - after D/A conversion, summation of the multiple data results in a moving-average filter circuit with double-speed accuracy. The MDSD principle is independent of signal frequency and signal level and output signal noise at very low levels is also minimized, which is very difficult to achieve with conventional delta-sigma converters. By locating a dedicated quartz oscillator very close to each ES9018 chip and driving the D/A converter as a master clock in asynchronous mode, jitter is also significantly reduced. The DP-720 also boasts of 119dB signal-to-noise ratio.

The player provides RCA and XLR outputs as well as usual optical and coaxial digital outputs. Plus there is a company's RJ-45 HS-Link connection (ideal for connecting the DP-720 with other Accuphase equipment to exclude signal conversions(, plus there is an USB (480Mbps) port.The DACs handle 32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz and native DSD 2.8224 MHz/1bit.